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Thorens 125 MKII cartridge advice

DanBNash

DanBNash

Active Member
Hi all,
I just purchased a Thorens 125 MKII with an SME 3009 II improved tonearm which will arrive next week. It has an Ortofon HOMC MC-1 Turbo cartridge which is new. I plan to use the cartridge before I decide whether to upgrade but I would love to get some advice from members who may have the same table and/or tonearm.

I have been using a Thorens 190 with an OM10 cartridge and an OM30 stylus. My other equipment is a Budgie MM tube phono amp, a Cambridge 840a v2 amp (used as a preamp) and a Carver A500x power amp with Thiel 2 2 speakers.

Any thoughts or advice on cart upgrades or just carts that work great with this setup would be appreciated. Thanks
 
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The OM-30 will work nicely on that arm, and Ortofon still makes the styli...you can go the vintage route, but that can be dicey...love the Shure v-15s...particularly the III and Vs, fitted with a Jico SAS stylus...very nice.
 
Thanks Dave - do you think the Ortofon HOMC MC-1 Turbo cartridge that's on the TD125 now is a good match?
 
In my opinion the compliance figure is too low...you need a cartridge with pretty high compliance for the Series II Improved.
 
I have a friend with the same deck and arm and he runs an AudioTechnica AT33EV with wonderful results.

Good luck

Eric
 
I use the same table/arm combination,although my arm is the ''unimproved'' version. I alternate between a Shure M95HE and an Ortofon OM30.
 
Is the headshell removable on the SME? If so, the MC-1 would like a bit more weight to get into the green zone for resonance. If not, that is a lighter arm and it needs higher compliance. VE has all the info for you as Ortofon is good about specifying compliance. A uses a higher frequency and if you run those through the calculators, you want to nearly double that AT compliance figure. 3009 mass figures are about 6.5 and 9.5 but there are differing numbers on the web.
 
I had over 20 different cartridges with the set up, and still have the TT. It worked very well with Stanton, Shure V-15's, but not so well with Ortofons of the period, . Anti skating or not they all, Ortofons, sounded like they were just on the edge of breakup with loud passages or with discs with quality control issues. The cartridges always seemed to have forward presence with this arm that I didn't recog nize, until later. I guess that why I preferred the SL series Ortofons with there dip in the midrange response. When I got my Rabco Sl-8E all the tracking problems with the Ortofons went away and the Shures and later Stantons sounded smoother. Plus I didn't have to worry about damaging the stylus on those expensive Moving coil cartridges due to physically handling the arm. Even with the cue control with the SME arm accidents can happen.

I am using Dynavectors now and the sound is so much better than Ortofons, Shures, Stantons, Signets and AT cartridges. I imagine and would hope 10x5 or 20X2 that I have now would work as well in the SME tracking at 2 grams, But once you have lived with straight line tracking ITS very HARD to go BACK the sound is so clear clean and free of tracking issues. I do want to hear a Dynavector in one of VPI's 12" composite arms.
 
I've had numerous carts on my TD125 with SME 3009 (with removable headshell) and recently did a head to head with Shure V15III, Shure M97XE with SAS stylus, and Denon DL-110 (http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/weird-micrograph-of-new-stylus.698881/). TO MY EARS, I liked the balance the V15 gave the best, though differences were subtle. I ordered an SAS stylus for the V15 from Japan just for another data point, though haven't received it yet. I tried an Ortofon Black and it was pleasing as well, but it sounds better on my VPI table with memorial tonearm. I'd sure like to try some of the newer Dynavector carts (like the 20x2 or Karat), but they are expensive and likely overkill for this vintage table.

BTW, I recently sold a pair of Carver A500x s that I was using for years as mono amps. They are really solid and powerful!
 
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Blue Shadow said:
Is the headshell removable on the SME? If so, the MC-1 would like a bit more weight to get into the green zone for resonance. If not, that is a lighter arm and it needs higher compliance. VE has all the info for you as Ortofon is good about specifying compliance. A uses a higher frequency and if you run those through the calculators, you want to nearly double that AT compliance figure. 3009 mass figures are about 6.5 and 9.5 but there are differing numbers on the web.
Click to expand...
Blue Shadow - I have confirmed that it does have a removable headshell
 
So your model is the 3009 S2 Improved. The S2 indicates the removable headshell and the literature does not show it as a Series II in the name. The non-removable headshell is the 3009 Series II Improved. The effective mass is 9.5 grams reported on VE but the literature says 12.5 grams: http://www.vinyl-lebt.de/SME/Technical/SME_Imprueck.jpg I don't know which to believe without a test record to verify resonance at a certain frequency. The removable headshell version is not a low mass arm, tending to be on the edge or medium. Good luck with your cartridge selection.
 
Blue Shadow said:
So your model is the 3009 S2 Improved. The S2 indicates the removable headshell and the literature does not show it as a Series II in the name. The non-removable headshell is the 3009 Series II Improved. The effective mass is 9.5 grams reported on VE but the literature says 12.5 grams: http://www.vinyl-lebt.de/SME/Technical/SME_Imprueck.jpg I don't know which to believe without a test record to verify resonance at a certain frequency. The removable headshell version is not a low mass arm, tending to be on the edge or medium. Good luck with your cartridge selection.
Click to expand...
Thanks Blue Shadow - the seller referred to the arm as a II improved but he has confirmed it has the detachable headshell.

Thanks everyone for the help. now that it's confirmed as the 3009 S2 improved, does that change anyone's recommendations?
 
  1. I'm probably going to try the Ortofon MC-1 Turbo to start (since it's coming wih the table) but if I'm not happy with it move to either an Ortofon OM40 (NOS) or an Ortofon Bronze cart.
 
Well, after weighing the advice here and talking to a tech I know, I went ahead and purchased a Shure V15 Type III cartridge and new JICO VN35E stylus.
I figure I can always upgrade to the JICO SAS at a later date. I also have bought a 2nd headshell and will have the Tech mount my OM30 to that.

I look forward to hearing the results!
 
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